Chapter of Maitreya
Scriptural Text: At that time, in the midst of the great assembly, Bodhisattva Maitreya rose from his seat, bowed at the Buddha’s feet, circumambulated three times to the right, knelt with palms joined, and said to the Buddha: “Great Compassionate World-Honored One, You have broadly opened the secret treasury for the bodhisattvas, enabling the great assembly to deeply understand samsara, distinguish the deviant from the right, and bestow upon all sentient beings in the Dharma-ending age the fearless Dharma-eye, so that regarding the Great Nirvana they may give rise to decisive faith and no longer follow samsaric states in a circular way, producing cyclical views.
World-Honored One, if bodhisattvas and sentient beings in the Dharma-ending age wish to enter the Tathagata’s great ocean of quiescent extinction, how should they cut off the root of samsara? Among those in samsara, how many kinds of natures are there? For those cultivating the Buddha’s bodhi, how many grades of difference are there? When bodhisattvas re-enter the dusty world, how many kinds of teaching expedients should they establish in order to liberate sentient beings? I pray You will not abandon Your world-saving great compassion, but enable all cultivating bodhisattvas and all sentient beings in the Dharma-ending age to gain the fully clear eye of wisdom, illumine the mirror of the wondrous mind, and perfectly awaken to the Tathagata’s unsurpassed knowledge and vision.” Having said this, he prostrated with five points touching the ground, and in this way requested three times.
Commentary: In the previous chapter, the Buddha taught: “One must first cut off the root of beginningless samsara.” Therefore in this chapter, Maitreya Bodhisattva asks: “How does one cut off the root of samsara? And how many kinds of samsaric beings are there?”
The main meaning of this passage is that Maitreya Bodhisattva asks:
How can the root of samsara be cut off so as to enter the Tathagata’s great ocean of Nirvana?
How many kinds of samsaric beings are there?
How many kinds of practitioners are there on the path to the Buddha’s bodhi?
When bodhisattvas enter the world to liberate beings, what expedient means do they use to teach them?
The great ocean of quiescent extinction means Mahayana Nirvana, vast and boundless like the sea, pure and still, hence called quiescent extinction. It is endowed with the four virtues: true permanence, true bliss, true self, and true purity. It is also another name for Perfect Enlightenment or true mind.
About Bodhisattva Maitreya:
Past background: In countless kalpas long ago, when a Buddha named Great Penetrating Wisdom Victory Tathagata appeared in the world, Maitreya and Shakyamuni Buddha (in former lives) both aroused the bodhi-mind. Later, when Sun-Moon-Lamp Bright Buddha appeared, Maitreya left home, but his nature was somewhat lax, still inclined toward elegance and ease, and not fully strict in cultivation. Therefore he became Buddha later than Shakyamuni, in the tenth minor kalpa.
Later, through Shakyamuni Buddha’s teaching of Consciousness-Only, he contemplated that “the three realms are mind-only; the ten thousand dharmas are consciousness-only.”
Seeing that wealth, rank, fame, and power are all like reflections in a mirror or the moon in water, manifested by consciousness, he cleared away all deluded attachment to false appearances, removed the imagined nature superimposed upon the dependent nature, and realized the perfectly accomplished real nature. Because of this, Shakyamuni Buddha predicted that he would later become Buddha in this Saha world.
Present manifestation of Maitreya: About 2,500 years ago, when Shakyamuni Buddha was born in India, Maitreya manifested in a Brahmin household in southern India, on the first day of the lunar new year. His family name was Ajita (the unsurpassed one), and his personal name was Maitreya (the Compassionate One). These names signify his boundless loving-kindness, compassion, joy, and relinquishment. Through countless kalpas until Buddhahood, he keeps the same name, Maitreya.
The Sutra on Maitreya’s Ascent says that on the fifteenth day of the second lunar month, twelve years after teaching that sutra, he entered nirvana at his birthplace, then was reborn in the inner court of Tusita Heaven, waiting until this world has passed through its decline and begins increasing again, when human lifespan reaches eighty thousand years. Then he will descend to this world, sit beneath the Dragon-Flower tree, and realize perfect awakening. After becoming Buddha, he will teach beings for sixty thousand years before entering nirvana.
Manifested bodies of Maitreya: The sutras say, “A bodhisattva takes benefiting beings as his fundamental intent.” He appears in many bodies among all types of people in order to liberate beings. Among his manifestations, the most widely known and worshiped in China and Vietnam is the Cloth-Bag Monk. He appeared as a monk in Mingzhou, Fenghua district in China. He carried a cloth sack through marketplaces and villages; whatever people gave him, he placed in the sack. He gathered children together, gave them sweets, taught Buddha-Dharma, and spoke to them joyfully, so wherever he went, children gathered around him.
He often taught Dharma to poor people and displayed many marvelous acts. At that time, no one understood who he really was, so people simply called him the Cloth-Bag Monk. In the third year of the Zhenming era of the Liang dynasty, on a certain day in the third month, he gathered people at Yuelin Monastery, sat upright, and recited this verse:
“Maitreya, true Maitreya,
Transforms into hundreds of thousands of millions of bodies.
At all times he appears among people,
Yet people of the time do not recognize him.”
After speaking the verse, he peacefully entered nirvana. Monastics and laypeople alike came to bow, make offerings, and enshrine his image in the eastern hall of Yuelin Monastery.
Because of this manifested body, temples in China and Vietnam often enshrine the image of the Cloth-Bag Monk with a kind, joyful face, smiling mouth, representing delight and joyousness. He is depicted fat and big-bellied, often holding a cloth bag, with six children climbing over him, symbolizing the six thieves (the six sense faculties) having been subdued. This is one transformation-body among Maitreya Bodhisattva’s countless manifestations.
Future of Maitreya: At present Maitreya is a One-Life-Remaining Bodhisattva abiding in Tusita’s inner court, waiting until this world finishes the ninth declining kalpa and reaches the tenth increasing kalpa, when human lifespan exceeds eighty thousand years. Then he will descend to this world and be born in the household of a Brahmin named Tu Pham Ma, with a mother named Pham Ma Bat De. At birth he will possess many auspicious marks, perfect virtue, and extraordinary intelligence. Later he will leave home, go to Mount Kukkutapada to receive Shakyamuni Buddha’s robe and bowl from Mahakasyapa, then sit beneath the Dragon-Flower tree and, using vajra wisdom, cut through subtle ignorance and realize unsurpassed bodhi.
He will teach at the Flower-Grove assembly beneath the Dragon-Flower tree. In the first assembly he will liberate ninety-six billion beings to arhatship, in the second assembly ninety-four billion, and in the third assembly ninety-two billion. Therefore this is called the Three Dragon-Flower Assemblies. He will teach Dharma for sixty thousand years and liberate countless beings.
Scriptural Text: At that time the World-Honored One told Bodhisattva Maitreya:
“Excellent, excellent! Good man, you are able, for the bodhisattvas and sentient beings in the Dharma-ending age, to ask the Tathagata about the subtle, profound, and secret meanings of the Buddhas, causing the bodhisattvas’ wisdom-eye to become pure, and also enabling all sentient beings in the Dharma-ending age to forever cut off samsara, awaken in mind to the true mark, and perfect the patience of non-arising. Listen carefully now, and I shall explain it for you.”
Then Bodhisattva Maitreya, together with the great assembly, joyfully accepted the teaching and listened in silence.
Commentary: In this passage the Buddha praises Maitreya Bodhisattva: because of your question, the Buddha’s teaching will cause present bodhisattvas’ wisdom-eye to become bright and later beings too will, through this question, forever leave samsara.
Scriptural Text: “Good man, all sentient beings from beginningless time, because they have all kinds of affectionate attachment and craving desire, therefore have samsara. If, in all worlds, all kinds of beings, whether born from eggs, wombs, moisture, or transformation, all take sexual desire as the principal cause for the continuation of life, then you should know that desire and attachment are the root of samsara. Because various desires assist and stimulate the nature of attachment, birth and death continue in succession.”
Commentary: This passage directly points out that the root of birth-and-death samsara is affectionate attachment and craving desire. Even the very bodies and lives of beings are formed through sexual desire. Since bodily life is born from desire, as long as bodily life remains, desire remains; as long as desire remains, bodily life continues.
The Buddha-name sutras say: “Where there is craving, there is birth; when craving is exhausted, there is extinction. Therefore know that the root of birth and death is craving.” The Nirvana Sutra also says: “From craving comes sorrow; from sorrow comes fear. If one leaves craving behind, what sorrow and what fear can there be?”
The four classes of birth:
Egg-born: beings born from eggs, such as birds and fish.
Womb-born: beings born from mothers, such as humans and animals.
Moisture-born: beings arising in damp places, such as larvae, insects, or microbes.
Transformation-born: beings such as a chrysalis becoming a butterfly, or beings in hells, hungry ghosts, and heavenly realms.
Scriptural Text: “Desire is born from attachment; life exists because of desire. Sentient beings cherish life and in turn rely on the root of desire. Desire and attachment are the cause; attachment to life is the effect.”
Vietnamese Rendering: Desire arises from attachment, and life exists because of desire. Sentient beings cling to bodily life by relying on the root of desire. Thus desire is the cause, and attachment to life is the effect.
Commentary: Master Zongmi explains: external objects of desire provoke the mind into attachment; because of attachment, craving desire arises. Because of craving, karma is made; because karma is made, one undergoes the result. When one undergoes painful results, one makes karma again. Therefore birth and death continue without end.
Scriptural Text: “Because of objects of desire, all kinds of compliance and opposition arise. When conditions accord with the attached mind, love is produced; when conditions oppose it, hatred and jealousy are produced. Creating various karmas, one is therefore again reborn in hells and among hungry ghosts. If one knows desire is something to grow weary of, becomes weary of the karmic path of attachment, abandons evil and delights in good, one then appears again among gods and humans.
Further, even if one knows attachment is something to grow weary of and so delights in renouncing attachment, that very delight is still a root of attachment. Therefore one manifests increasingly superior wholesome fruits, but because these are still within samsara, one does not accomplish the holy path. Therefore, if sentient beings wish to escape birth and death and avoid all samsara, they must first cut off craving desire and remove thirsty attachment.”
Commentary: Earlier Maitreya Bodhisattva asked, “How many kinds of beings are there in samsara?” Here the Buddha replies that there are three kinds of samsaric beings:
Beings of evil karma: hell beings, hungry ghosts, and animals.
Beings of wholesome karma: humans, gods, and asuras.
Beings of immovable karma (meditative absorption): the heavens of the four dhyanas and the four formless absorptions.
These three classes, though higher or lower, noble or humble, all still retain love and desire, whether coarse or subtle. As long as love and desire remain, the afflictions with outflows remain; as long as those remain, birth-and-death samsara remains.
In short, because beings in the three realms still retain attachment, all remain in samsara.
At the end of this passage, the Buddha gives one concise instruction: “Therefore, if sentient beings wish to escape birth and death and leave samsara, they must first cut off affectionate attachment and craving desire.”
The Buddha’s teaching for escaping birth-and-death samsara is only one sentence: cut off affectionate attachment and craving desire.
It is extremely simple and extremely clear. It is truly a golden rule for all ages. If practitioners simply practice according to this teaching, that itself is cultivation. Likewise, in the Shurangama Sutra the Buddha says: “If lustful thought is not removed, one cannot leave the dust of the world.” That is: if thoughts of sensual desire are not cut off, this worldly realm cannot be transcended.
Scriptural Text: “Good man, bodhisattvas transform and manifest in the world not on the basis of attachment. They only use compassion to cause beings to abandon attachment. They provisionally enter birth and death through appearances of desire. If all sentient beings in the Dharma-ending age can give up all desires and also eliminate hatred and attachment, they will forever cut off samsara; then, seeking the Tathagata’s realm of Perfect Enlightenment with a pure mind, they will gain awakening.”
Commentary: This passage prevents misunderstanding. Some may think that because bodhisattvas also appear with parents, spouses, and social relations, they too must truly have attachment, defilement, and real birth and death like ordinary beings. The Buddha therefore explains: bodhisattvas, moved by compassion and great vows to save the world, merely manifest bodies that appear to have desire and that enter birth and death so as to teach beings. They do not truly possess defilement or samsara.
Scriptural Text: “Good man, all sentient beings, because of the original root of craving desire, bring forth ignorance, thereby manifesting five different kinds of nature. According to two kinds of obstructions, these appear as deep or shallow.”
Commentary: Earlier Maitreya Bodhisattva asked: “How many categories of people are there who cultivate the Buddha’s bodhi?” Here the Buddha replies: there are five categories. These five are distinguished according to whether the practitioner’s removal of the two obstructions is deep or shallow.
Scriptural Text: “What are the two obstructions?
First, the obstruction of principle, which obstructs right knowledge and vision.
Second, the obstruction of phenomena, which perpetuates birth and death.”
Commentary: These two obstructions are as follows: the unborn and undying dharma belongs to the unconditioned and is called principle. All dharmas that arise through causes and conditions belong to the conditioned and are called phenomena.
Self-nature is nondual and without opposition, so both conditioned and unconditioned are transcended. But once one constructs a “true principle,” then agreement and disagreement with principle are set up. Agreement and disagreement are duality and not the nondual self-nature. Therefore they obstruct right knowledge and vision and are called the obstruction of principle. Right knowledge and vision here means nondual knowing, that is, not establishing any fixed view at all.
Phenomena means practical activity. Any form of practice, whether in accord with principle or not, can become an obstruction of phenomena if one clings to it. Why? Because if one clings to what is correct as truly existent, then transformational birth and death continue; if one practices wrongly, then ordinary segmented birth and death continue. These two kinds of birth and death are both called continued birth and death.
Because of self-clinging, afflictions arise and obstruct bodhi. Because of self-clinging, the obstruction of knowledge also arises. If in arousing the aspiration to cultivate one has not yet cut off either of these two obstructions, one is still simply called “sentient being” and is not yet placed among the five natures.
Scriptural Text: “What are the five natures? Good man,
If these two obstructions have not yet been cut off and extinguished, this is called not yet having become Buddha.
If sentient beings forever abandon craving desire, first remove the obstruction of phenomena, but have not yet cut off the obstruction of principle, they can only awaken to and enter the levels of sravaka and pratyekabuddha, and cannot yet manifest and abide in the bodhisattva realm.”
Commentary: This passage speaks of the nature of the two vehicles, sravaka and pratyekabuddha.
These two both abandon craving desire, both break self-clinging, both remove the obstruction of phenomena, both cut off ordinary birth and death, and both have not yet removed the obstruction of principle (attachment to dharmas). Yet their methods differ:
One cultivates the Four Noble Truths to remove the obstruction of phenomena and is called the sravaka nature.
One cultivates the Twelve Links of Dependent Origination to remove the obstruction of phenomena and is called the pratyekabuddha nature.
Master Zongmi explains: “Knowing the suffering of birth and death and cutting off the monkey-like roaming mind is called removing the obstruction of phenomena; yet one still has not removed the three subtle forms.”
Scriptural Text: “Good man, if all sentient beings in the Dharma-ending age wish to enter the Tathagata’s great ocean of Perfect Enlightenment, they should first bring forth the vow diligently to cut off the two obstructions. When the two obstructions are subdued, one can awaken to and enter the bodhisattva realm. If the obstructions of phenomena and principle are forever cut off and extinguished, one enters the Tathagata’s subtle Perfect Enlightenment and fully attains bodhi and Great Nirvana.”
Commentary: This passage speaks of the bodhisattva nature. It can be divided into two stages:
The stage in which the two obstructions have only recently been subdued.
The stage in which the two obstructions are entirely severed.
The practitioner begins as an ordinary being, dominated by the two obstructions, then passes through a stage of struggle until they are subdued. At that point one has just entered the bodhisattva stage. Continuing to remove the obstructions: when the afflictive obstruction (self-clinging) is completely cut off, one attains bodhi, the virtue of wisdom; when the cognitive obstruction (dharma-clinging) is completely cut off, one attains Great Nirvana, the virtue of cessation. Once the two obstructions are cut off forever, Buddhahood is attained.
Why establish a bodhisattva nature but not separately establish a Tathagata nature? Because when bodhisattva cultivation reaches its complete consummation, it is Buddhahood, so there is no need to establish another separate Tathagata nature.
Scriptural Text: “Good man, all sentient beings all realize Perfect Enlightenment; when they encounter good spiritual friends, they cultivate according to whatever causal-ground dharmas and practices those teachers themselves follow. At that time in cultivation there comes to be sudden or gradual difference. But if they encounter the Tathagata’s unsurpassed bodhi and the correct path of practice, then regardless of whether their faculties are great or small, all attain Buddhahood.”
Commentary: This passage speaks of the indeterminate nature. Such beings do not have a fixed orientation toward either the Great Vehicle or the lesser vehicle. If they meet a Great Vehicle teacher, they become Great Vehicle; if they meet a lesser-vehicle teacher, they become lesser-vehicle.
Scriptural Text: “If sentient beings, though seeking good spiritual friends, instead encounter those of wrong views and do not gain right awakening, this is called the nature of outsiders. The fault lies in the error of the wrong teacher, not in the sentient being. These are called the five differing natures of sentient beings.”
Commentary: This passage speaks of the outsider nature. Although such beings still wish to cultivate, they do not meet good spiritual friends and instead encounter false teachers, so they become outsiders.
Because their understanding is crooked and not the right path, this is called “outsider.” In other scriptures, this is called the icchantika nature, meaning the cutting off of the Buddha-seed. The four earlier natures, though differing between Great and lesser vehicle, still involve right awakening. Only the outsider nature gives rise to wrong views, cuts off right view, and goes against the true cause of Buddhahood.
Scriptural Text: “Good man, bodhisattvas only by means of great compassionate expedients enter the worlds, opening and awakening those not yet awakened. They may even manifest all kinds of forms and favorable or adverse circumstances, work alongside beings, transform them, and cause them to become Buddhas. All of this relies on the beginningless power of pure vows.”
Commentary: Earlier Maitreya Bodhisattva asked: “When bodhisattvas enter the world to liberate beings, what expedients do they use?”
The main meaning here is the Buddha’s answer: bodhisattvas enter the world because of their fundamental, beginningless vow to liberate beings, propelled by pure great compassion. They do not enter the world under compulsion of defiled desire and karmic force, as ordinary beings do.
Bodhisattvas use expedients and manifest many forms to save beings. Avalokitesvara manifests thirty-two response bodies; Maitreya manifests as the Cloth-Bag Monk; others may appear as Vajra guardians, wrathful faces, kings of the underworld, ox-head and horse-face spirits, and so on. Sometimes they show gentleness, sometimes majesty. There is an old saying:
“The fierce gaze of Vajra subdues the four demons.
The lowered brows of the bodhisattva express compassion for beings in the six paths.”
Sometimes bodhisattvas manifest favorable conditions by teaching wholesome Dharma and encouraging practice. At other times they manifest adverse conditions, such as severe warnings, shocking events, or harsh circumstances, to awaken beings. The ancients said: “Without calamity, people do not turn their heads back toward the good.”
Sometimes bodhisattvas live among beings and even share their occupations and activities, gradually leading them back to the right path.
In short, bodhisattvas entering the world to save beings always do so from great compassion as the motive and great vows as the basis. Their expedients are various, but broadly they do not go beyond favorable and adverse means, verbal instruction, embodied example, or working together with beings. Their single aim is to bring beings to liberation and Buddhahood.
Scriptural Text: “If all sentient beings in the Dharma-ending age arouse the supreme mind toward Great Perfect Enlightenment, they should bring forth the bodhisattva’s pure great vow and say:
‘I vow that from this moment I shall abide in the Buddha’s Perfect Enlightenment, seek good spiritual friends, and not encounter outsiders or the two vehicles. According to this vow I shall cultivate, gradually cut off the obstructions, and when the obstructions are exhausted and the vow fulfilled, I will ascend the pure Dharma-hall of liberation and realize the wondrously adorned realm of Great Perfect Enlightenment.'”
Commentary: The main meaning here is that the Buddha teaches later beings who seek Perfect Enlightenment to make a vow: “May I not meet false teachers of outsiders, nor the lesser-vehicle path that seeks only self-benefit and neglects broad Dharma-propagation for the benefit of beings. May I meet Great Vehicle good spiritual friends, cultivate active altruism, and be guided to Buddhahood.”
Master Nhu Son said: “Principle may be awakened to suddenly, but in terms of concrete phenomena, they must be removed gradually.” When the obstructions are exhausted, then in walking, standing, sitting, and lying down, at all times and in all places, one abides in liberation. That is the pure hall of liberation and the adorned city of Perfect Enlightenment.
Scriptural Text: At that time the World-Honored One, wishing to restate this meaning, spoke verses:
Maitreya, you should know:
All sentient beings
Do not attain the great liberation
Because of craving desire.
They fall into birth and death.
If they can cut off love and hate,
And also greed, anger, and delusion,
Then regardless of differing natures,
All can accomplish the Buddha-path.
When the two obstructions are fully destroyed,
And one seeks a teacher and gains right awakening,
Following the bodhisattva vow,
One relies on Great Nirvana.
All bodhisattvas in the ten directions
Rely on great compassionate vows
To manifest entering birth and death.
Present-day practitioners
And beings of the Dharma-ending age,
If diligent in cutting off all views of attachment,
Will then return to Great Perfect Enlightenment.